Food From the Father - Homily for July 22

Readings for Sunday, July 22 / 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Jeremiah 23:1-6  |  Psalm 23  |  Ephesians 2:13-18  |  Mark 6:30-34

This weekend we hear all about the food that the Father provides for us - and it's not cheeseburgers.

Papal Intention for July 2018

This month Pope Francis invites us to pray for Evangelization – Priests and their Pastoral Ministry:

That priests, who experience fatigue and loneliness in their pastoral work, may find help and comfort in their intimacy with the Lord and in their friendship with their brother priests.

While we're at it....

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.
R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life,
and make him blessed upon the earth,
and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Easter: The Head and the Body - Homily for May 13

Readings for May 13 / Ascension of Our Lord:  Acts 1:1-11  |  Psalm 47  |  Ephesians 1:17-23  |  Mark 16:15-20

The feast of the Ascension of Our Lord tells us much about Christ the Head and about our mission as the Body. Let's get to work!

Papal Intentions for September 2016

Papal Intentions for September 2016

Universal Intention: That each may contribute to the common good and to the building of a society that places the human person at the center.
Mission Intention: That by participating in the Sacraments and meditating on Scripture, Christians may become more aware of their mission to evangelize.

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Papal Intentions for October 2015

Papal Intentions for October 2015

Universal Intention: That human trafficking, the modern form of slavery, may be eradicated.

Mission Intention: That with a missionary spirit the Christian communities of Asia may announce the Gospel to those who are still awaiting it.

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. 

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

HWP: St. Francis Xavier

Today is the feast of St. Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits and a man whose zeal for the Lord rivaled that of the Apostles. As we continue in this Advent season, we pray to grow in God's grace and in zeal for souls by this week's Half-Way Prayer:

A Prayer of St. Francis Xavier

My God, I love thee; 

not because I hope for heaven thereby, 

nor yet because who love thee not are lost eternally. 

Thou, O my Jesus, 

thou didst me upon the cross embrace; 

for me didst bear the nails and spear, 

and manifold disgrace. 

And griefs and torments numberless and sweat of agony; 

even death itself, 

and all for one Who was thine enemy. 

Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ 

should I not love thee well? 

not for the hope of winning heaven, 

or of escaping hell. 

not with the hope of gaining aught, 

nor seeking a reward, 

but as thyself has lovèd me, 

O ever-loving Lord! 

Even so I love thee, and will love 

and in thy praise will sing, 

solely because thou art my God, 

and my eternal king.

Papal Intentions for December 2014

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. 

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

Papal Intentions for December 2014

Universal Intention: That the birth of the Redeemer may bring peace and hope to all people of good will.

Mission Intention: That parents may be true evangelizers, passing on to their children the precious gift of faith.

Faith's Mid-Term Exam

Readings for Sunday, October 19/ 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
Psalm 96:1, 3-5, 7-10
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
Matthew 22:15-21

God acts in strange ways sometimes. One day I was at the seminary in the chapel and felt convicted that I needed to simplify my life a bit, so I prayed for the grace to spend less time on the computer, internet, and my phone. I concluded my prayer, went upstairs, sat down in my chair and swung around to work at my desk. In this swing I hit my knee on the desk, causing my solid glass picture frame to come crashing down directly on the screen of my laptop. Prayer answered! Not how I had expected and much more expensively than anticipated, but prayer answered.

For the past couple of weeks there has been a Synod of Bishops (a gathering of Cardinals, Bishops, lay men and women, and various professionals from across the globe) in Rome to discuss “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” That’s a mouthful of a title, but the basic idea seems great – how can the Church help families today to thrive in life and in faith. And so they had hours and hours of discussions on a whole host of topics, but interestingly enough, when the secular media read the document that was released half-way through the Synod as a summary of their discussions something entirely different came up – ‘The Church is Okay with Gays!’, ‘Ground-breaking changes in the Church!’ and ‘Church finally coming out of dark ages!’ And my first thoughts were basically (pardon my language) ‘What the hell does any of that have to do with the family!?’ Nothing! And with those announcements came a great uproar from all sides. Some greatly in favor of such changes and other in shock because they Church cannot make such changes. But in the midst of all of this, we have to realize one thing: this is a test. Do we trust God to work through all of this? It’s a test.

We don’t often think about God testing us these days. It’s not part of our concept of God and yet it is very much God’s concept of Himself. It happens all throughout the Scriptures, over and over again; testing the love of the people for God. We see one instance in our first reading from Isaiah about ‘the anointed, Cyrus.’ Such a description would have caused a great scandal among the Israelites because the anointed was the Messiah, the savior of God’s people, but Cyrus wasn’t even a Jew. He wasn’t even a believer! “It is I who arm you, though you know me not,” the Lord says of him. Talk about a test – the savior of the people chosen by God wouldn’t even believe in that God himself? Wow.

And it’s not just the Lord who puts us to the test, right? Sometimes we put God to the test, though we aren’t necessary supposed to do so. But that’s what happens in the Gospel this week. For the past few weeks, Jesus has been on the offensive, asking questions and speaking parables. But this week they come after Him with questions, beginning with that of the tax to Caesar. It was a good question because either way He answered it meant rebellion; to pay the tax was to rebel against the Jewish culture and apparently acknowledge an earthly ‘god’ in Casear, to not pay the tax was to rebel against Caesar and surely merit death. And to this quandary Jesus poses the question about whose image is there. In the coin, we see the image of Caesar and are challenged to give to Caesar what is his, but the next step is the catch – but we must give to God what belongs to God. The coin was in Caesar’s image, but what is made in God’s image? Us – you and me. And that’s the problem.

It’s hard to ‘give to God what is God’s’ because means that we must give God our entire self. Our mind, our heart, our will, our desires, our hopes, our dreams. It goes against one of our deepest desires, which is to have control. To have control means we can have some comfort in knowing what to expect of the future, we can put our trust in our own work and not have to interact with anyone higher (or so we think). So the real question here is do we trust God that much? Each night for the Church’s official Night Prayer there is a response that echoes the Psalms and the Lord Jesus on the Cross which says, “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.” I had prayed those words well over a thousand times but then one night I prayed them and looked at the crucifix and realized what was in the hands of the Lord: nails. “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.” Into your hands I place my life, my will, ever wish I have for the future, there to be nailed with your hands to the Cross and there to die, trusting that the resurrection reality you have in store for me is that much greater.

With the Synod there were three main responses and to each of them the invitation is to trust. For those who are afraid that the Church is making all sorts of seismic shifts and changes, it is an opportunity to trust that the Lord who gave the Church the Holy Spirit to lead us in all truth and promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her will be faithful to us and protect us from the influence of the evil one. For those who are excited about the prospect of radical change in the Church, it is an opportunity to trust that the Lord who gave us the law of Love 2000 years ago has not abandoned us and that the Law that sometimes feels harsh, or exclusive is meant not to weigh us down but to lift us up into heaven. And for those who have no concern one way or the other, this time is a chance to trust that all of these things being discussed and the decisions to be made have a great importance in the life of the Church and the world.

God works in strange ways sometimes, but in those strangest of times we need only remember that it is likely a test to measure the extent of our love for the Lord. It is a test to see just how much we are willing to place our will into the crucified hands of Jesus. It is a test to see how firm we our in awareness of the Spirit’s action all around us. As we come to receive Holy Communion today it is an opportunity to unite ourselves to God not only in the flesh, but also to let our will become more conformed to His. Do we love God that much? 

Papal Intentions for October 2014

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. 

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

Papal Intentions for October 2014

Universal Intention: That the Lord may grant peace to those parts of the world most battered by war and violence.

Mission Intention: That World Mission Day may rekindle in every believer zeal for carrying the Gospel into all the world.

Papal Intentions for August 2014

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. 

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

Papal Intentions for August 2014

Universal Intention: That refugees, forced by violence to abandon their homes, may find a generous welcome and the protection of their rights. 

Mission Intention: The Christians in Oceania may joyfully announce the faith to all the people of that region. 

UNITY and YOU

Readings for Sunday, June 8/ Pentecost Sunday:
Acts 2:1-11
Psalm 104: 1, 24, 29-31, 34
1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
John 20:19-23

Today we gather to celebrate a feast that has roots dating back well over 3000 years. That’s right 3000. We often forget that our Catholic faith didn’t just spring up out of nowhere but instead is firmly rooted in – and is the fulfillment of – the Jewish faith until the time of Christ. Our architecture, worship, teachings, are all intimately tied together. In Jewish life Pentecost was a day that God marked out seven weeks after Passover (50 days is what Pentecost indicates) for the people to turn to Him in thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth that had grown in the recent weeks. In like style, our Christian faith also turns to God 50 days after the New Passover of Easter and gives thanks to God once more, not for earthly fruits but for the fruit of the Holy Spirit who has made His dwelling among us.

In liturgical observance, we often think that the two most important feasts of the year are Christmas and Easter, but the truth is that Pentecost is more important that Christmas. It makes sense that Easter is first in rank because that is the day when Jesus conquered sin and death and opened the gates of Heaven for us. Without Easter, we all go to Hell. That’s why we sing ALLELUIA just about every other word during the Easter Vigil and all throughout the Easter season. But as we know, things didn’t just stop at Easter. The Lord Ascended into Heavenly glory, which we celebrated last weekend, and sent among us the gift of the Holy Spirit. What would have happened, you think, if Jesus gave us the great commission to baptize the nations and teach them to do all He had commanded and didn’t give us any help in carrying it out? I bet the gates of hell would have prevailed against the Church before Peter had every stepped foot out of the upper room! Without the Holy Spirit coming to us, we are as good as dead. We have no hope of doing anything good or holy because we wouldn’t have He who is holiness itself in our hearts. Pentecost means we are not alone. God is with us! Even in our very heart!

The fact that the Spirit is with us means that we are now able to carry out the mission begun by Jesus. That mission was basically to draw all of humanity to the Father. Jesus is like a big magnet who seeks to draw all people to Himself and hoist us up into the Trinitarian embrace of Love; it was about uniting us all together and going as one body to God the Father.

In the Vigil Mass yesterday we heard recounted the story of Babel from Genesis; that ancient story that explains the division of peoples. The story explains that everyone initially spoke the same language and in their pride they sought to make a name for themselves, saying, “otherwise we shall be scattered over all the earth.” They relied upon themselves rather than trusting that God wanted to do great things for them if they were humble. It was pride. Adam and Eve were the first but certainly not the last to commit it. And because they relied upon themselves rather than the Lord, they were made to speak different languages and scattered over all the earth, just as they had sought to avoid. Sin and self-seeking sows division.

In our first reading today we hear in the Acts of the Apostles that the disciples were gathered together in one place. This is significant because during the Passion of Christ they were all scattered and went their own way. But as they began to reflect afterward, they began thinking about the Lord and the promises that He had made and each began to come back to that place where Christ wanted to show them His power. They focused not on themselves but on God and were naturally drawn into union – all in the same place.

So if the mission of Jesus was to bring about unity in the world and to bring us together as one body before the Father, how are we doing? What ways are you and I actively promoting unity in our community and in the larger Church?

I can think of three ways to help us in this task: conversion of heart, thinking in the plural, and highlighting the good.

In the Gospel we just heard the Lord Jesus gave the power to forgive sins to the disciples. This was the first thing He did after the Resurrection, so that means it is of the utmost importance. Are we taking advantage of that gift? In order to build up unity and draw others to God, we must first be drawn to Him ourselves. Christ is calling us to come to reconciliation and experience the forgiveness of sins that takes away all barriers between us and the Lord and makes us conduits of grace for Him to work to reach others. A practical schedule that all of us ought to keep is to make a good confession at least once a month, to attend Mass at least once a week, and to spend time in prayer at least once a day. It is easy to find reasons not to do those things in that schedule, but if you do, you won’t regret it.

The second step is thinking in the plural. Our first step is to encounter Jesus and have the ‘me & Jesus’ moment that continually changes our hearts, but we cannot stop there. If my whole spiritual journey is ‘me & Jesus’ then our journey will end not at the pearly gates but the fire pit because our faith necessary requires us to reach out to others. ‘Whatever you do for the least of these you do to me’ means that we have to think of others and put the needs of others before our own sometimes. The perfect prayer given by Jesus reminds us of that same fact in that it begins ‘OUR Father’. We have to think not I/Me/My but Us/We/Ours and to do our best to work for the good of all and not just what benefits us most in the moment.

The third thing is to highlight the good. A couple of years ago Fr. Ronal Knott gave our continuing education conference for the priests and he was talking about factions and rifts among clergy and how easy it is to talk bad about other priests. He then challenged us not simply to avoid bad-mouthing brother priests, but to actually do some good-mouthing. That struck me because 1) is good-mouthing even a word?! And 2) how difficult is it to say something positive about others who you may not like?! All of us are members of the Body of Christ and have spiritual gifts and strengths, and even those who aren’t part of the Body of Christ yet still have some gift that builds up the world around them. Are we willing not just to avoid saying bad but to actually emphasize good things about others? To point out places where we agree rather than disagree? To list strengths and improvements instead of weaknesses and failures? We are all part of the same Body. Why not rejoice in the good that each part does and so spur the whole body forward to the glory that awaits us?

To celebrate Pentecost is not just to recall an event that happened 2000 years ago. It is to realize that the Spirit lives in us even today and seeks to continue the saving mission of Jesus in uniting all people to the Father. We have a mission and, thanks be to God, we have the gift of the Spirit to strengthen us in it. So let us thank the Lord for His love shown to us and to pray that we might be drawn ever more closely to God and many others with us.

Bridges

Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado

Readings for Sunday, May 18/ 5th Sunday of Easter:
Acts 6:1-7
Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
1 Peter 2:4-9
John 14:1-12

I’ve always loved bridges. They fascinate me because of their function but also, often, because of their beauty. The highest bridge in the U.S. over Royal Gorge in Colorado, the longest rope bridge east of the Mississippi, and double-decker bridge leading into Cincinnati, and the numerous bridges sprinkled all across South Louisiana each in their own way give me pause to contemplate something incredible as travel over them – the ability to unite things that seem utterly separate.

That concept, though I never put it in such words, is what drew me to consider the vocation of the priesthood. In fact, in the early Church, the priest was often referred to by the Latin term ‘pontifex,’ which means ‘bridge-builder,’ because every priest is supposed to build bridges to unite humanity with the Divine. It’s the whole nature of the priesthood really and they do it by offering sacrifices. The role of the priest in the ancient Israelite community was to offer sacrifices and prayers to God on behalf of the people to keep them safe in His care. The ordained priest today does a similar action by offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and prescribed prayers each day to permit people to draw into communion with the Lord. The priest is a bridge-builder and the sacrifices that the priest offers are the means to building those bridges and strengthening them.

But the thing is this: it’s not just me and other ordained priests who are called to be bridge-builders. All of us are called to be bridge-builders and the Lord is inviting us to stop today to contemplate how good of a job we are doing.

Now here is where we get a bit theological, but stick with me! In First Peter we just heard of a people that is “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own.” We are that people! This phrasing was originally intended for the Jewish people but with the coming of Jesus is universalized and applied to every person who receives the gift of Baptism. Our baptismal ritual reminds us that every person baptized in Christ Jesus is anointed priest, prophet, and king. Christ Jesus is the One High Priest but because we are members of the Body of Christ by baptism, we participate also in His priesthood. Ordained priests do so in a different way, but we all participate in the priesthood of Jesus. But what does that priesthood look like? 

We hear the answer in the Preface before the Eucharistic Prayer today: Jesus Christ comes among us as the priest, the altar, and the lamb of sacrifice. This is significant because before Jesus, the priest and the sacrificial offering were distinct from one another - the priest offered a lamb, bull, wheat, etc. - but Jesus changes everything and makes the priest himself the offering, he is the one sacrificed. And the same with us. St. Paul put it this way in the Letter to the Romans: “I urge you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.” (12:1) To put it simply, the sacrifice that all of the baptized members of the Church are called to offer God in a priestly manner is their whole self: we give ourselves to God in offering, we give Him everything that we have, everything that we are, everything that we desire, everything that we fear, our whole life with nothing held back. That is what God desires of us. Our whole life is supposed to be a priestly act, an act of sacrifice that works to build up bridges between those around us and the God that loves us all.

We're hopefully all working as bridge-builders to some degree now, but for every one of us, myself included, there is still room to grow and become even better at drawing people to God. And there are three concrete things we can do to make that happen.

First – to use the words of Pope St. Pius X, “Don’t pray AT Holy Mass. Pray THE Holy Mass.” The best way that we can be better instruments of bringing people to Jesus is to get closer to Jesus our self and the place where that happens is here at Mass. If we enter into this celebration more deeply, things change. If we listen to the prayers and pray them for ourselves, if we spend time with the readings and question where God is speaking to us, if we offer our needs and the needs of others at the appropriate times in the Mass, we will be changed and that will change others. If we want to build bridges to bring people to God, there's not better way than to celebrate the most miraculous bridge in Eucharistic Holy Communion.

Second – sacrifice for others. There are a variety of ways to do this. We can offer a sacrifice of prayers for people and spend time praying for them. We can fast or abstain from food, drink, entertainment, or some luxury for conversion of others. We can offer up a sacrifice of our desire and do something with or for them so that they can see love in action. God alone changes hearts, but He often waits for us to ask Him to do so. So let us ask and offer some gift to help the bridge come together.

Third – be willing to be used. Sometimes one of the best ways to be a bridge between God and humanity is to simply invite people to get closer to God. This can be an invite to join you at Mass, return to confession, gathering for prayer as friends, or scripture sharing with a group. It can be by talking about your faith to encourage them in theirs. It can be a whole host of things. But often we can shrink back in fear of what others might think, say, feel, or do if we bring God into the picture. Be not afraid of what might happen but remember that God often speaks to us through others and that sometimes He wants to speak through us as well. 

I always loved bridges. But as much as I love marveling at them, it is much more beautiful to be one ourselves. Countless others of our family and friends and helped us draw near to God by building bridges to connect us to Him. May God grant us today the grace to continue building bridges for others so we can truly be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people all his own.

Papal Intentions for May 2014

Holy cow! It's May already?! Time to post our Holy Father's Intentions for the month...

Papal Intentions for May 2014

Universal Intention: That the media may be instruments in the service of truth and peace.

Mission Intention: That Mary, Star of Evangelization, may guide the Church in proclaiming Christ to all nations.

and while you're at it...

A Prayer for the Pope!!!

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. 

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

Marriage and the Gospel Witness

Marriage of Joseph & Mary

Readings for Sunday, February 9/ 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Isaiah 58:7-10
Psalm 112:4-9
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Matthew 5:13-16

Take a moment and think of someone you admire, someone you try to emulate. What is it about that person that draws you to them? What makes you look up to them? I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you probably picked someone you know personally – a family member, friend, co-worker, or someone else in the community – and the reason you did so is because you have been struck by the way they live their life, especially in regards to attributes you believe are important. Whether they knew it or not, their life and example has changed the way you lived yours. And there are others looking to each one of us for the same.

That's what Mother Church invites us to reflect upon this weekend: the value and need for our witness in the world. The prophet Isaiah, the author of the psalm we used for our response today, and the Lord Jesus Himself call us to become world-changing witnesses - salt and light. We like food around here and everyone knows how a little bit of salt can change a whole meal. So, too, one small match can change a pile of wood into a raging bonfire. When we think of being witnesses it doesn't mean having to do great things so much as letting God use us as He desires - and sometimes it does have huge effect. But the most important part is simply putting ourselves in God's hands and witnessing to His work. This is what Saint Paul reminds us today in the letter to the Corinthians. He said, “I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power.” It wasn't by pretty words that people were able to be saved so much as the witness of God's grace working in Paul himself. That is what changes lives.

All of us are called to be witnesses to Christ and the Church, but as we celebrate National Marriage Week this week and World Marriage Sunday this weekend, it seems appropriate to emphasize especially the call of married couples to share this witness. Unfortunately we are seeing a serious attack on marriage and family life in our world today. The folks pushing the homosexual agenda are trying to redefine marriage itself, the throwaway culture says when marriage isn’t fun anymore to divorce and move on, and even many of our young people don't grasp the reality that marriage is a Sacrament and settle for a civil marriage outside of the Church. How true, indeed, is the powerful quote from St. Jean Vianney: “very few people invite Jesus Christ to their wedding; on the contrary, they seem to do all they can to keep Him away.” This is foolishness because it is Christ Himself who make the two become one in the first place!

The importance of marriage cannot be overstated. Holy Marriage is the basic element of family life. It is the place where children find stability and balance. Marriage is the foundation of society as a whole as society is composed largely of family units.  It is the place where the faith is first passed on to our youth. It is the place where virtue is learned most powerfully. But beyond all of that, it is a visible, tangible witness of the Gospel message itself!

The couple being a couple speaks to the fact that all of us are created for something more, that we long to be fulfilled. Marriage does this to some extent in this life, but it is God alone who can fulfill us completely and every couple reminds us that God is real and we are called to union with Him. In fact marriage is the main image used to describe the relationship between God and humanity; from the first page of Genesis to that last words of Revelation it echoes constantly. The love that spouses show to one another is a sort of echo of the love that God has for us. Because we are imperfect, there is necessarily a time when sin, faults, and failures come into the picture and so we are able to see also a witness of God's mercy in the forgiveness the show toward each other. The fidelity of God is also made manifest in the permanence of marriage. I love to hear from couples how long they have been married because it reminds me of the God who is ever faithful and also encourages me to be faithful to my own vocation despite whatever difficulties come. Whether they are aware of it or not, every married couple is speaking to the world around them something of the Gospel message itself. This is why we need Holy Marriages. We often hear that we need more priests (we do!) and that we need more religious brothers and sisters, deacons, and consecrated virgins (we do!) but the vast majority of the people who discern one of those vocations does so because they have been seeing a witness of the love, mercy, and fidelity of God in their parents from youth. Holy families produce holy vocations. 

Again, all of us are called to be witnesses of Jesus Christ in our own way. But those of you in the vocation of holy marriage are called in a special way to be living witnesses of God’s love, forgiveness, fidelity, and life. So I encourage you, spend time together as a couple and as a family. Pray together and pray for each other. I need your witness, your kids need your witness, our community and our whole world needs your witness. Please let the light of Christ shine brightly, that seeing your good deeds, we all may glorify God our Heavenly Father.

Christian Unity?

Sts. Peter & Paul

Readings for Sunday, January 26/ Third Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Isaiah 8:23-9:3
Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14
1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
Matthew 4:12-23

How are we building up the Body of Christ? Or more personally, how you and how am I building up the Body of Christ?

Toward the end of John’s Gospel we hear the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus in which He prays that we all may be one as He and the Father are one. The perfect union of mind and will that the Father and Son share is what Christ truly desires for each one of us. In fact, the whole mission of Jesus Christ on Earth was of a unitive nature.  When He took on flesh to save us, it was by drawing us into union with Himself as individuals and as a community that that union would be then drawn up into eternity. This is what we hear in the first reading from Isaiah today as the people in darkness have seen a great light. They have wandered looking for something to guide them and the light that is Christ has appeared to them and they are drawn to Him. In the Gospel we hear that this calling of all people to Himself is not done just by generic calling of crowds but by the specific calling of each person to come and follow after Him. Everything Jesus did was with the ultimate goal of uniting broken humanity to Himself and perfecting that union in the glory of Heavenly life.

While we recognize that unitive nature of Christ’s mission to humanity, we also recognize that we often fail to live that unity out in our own lives. It’s nothing new though, as if there was a ‘golden age’ of Christianity in the past and we’ve fallen away from it. Quite the opposite. Paul’s letter to the community in Corinth shows us that shortly after his departure from them rivalries began to spring up and the Christian community was divided among itself instead of being united. And similar things happen in our own day. So the question again for each of us to reflect upon today is how am I building up the Body of Christ? How am I building up the Church?

In reflecting on this question, it seems to me that there are three levels of union to which each of us are called to labor in the Church: personal union, universal union, and local union.

Let us begin with personal union. Are we letting ourselves be truly united to Jesus Christ? It is often the case – and I point fingers nowhere other than myself – that we have good intentions that we fall short of living out. We agree that we should avoid sin, and yet we often cling to our sins and form defenses of them. How many times have we said, ‘That’s just my personality.’, ‘That’s how God made me.’, or some similar line that excuses us from actually working to root sinful inclinations out of our lives? Additionally, are we allowing ourselves the time to encounter Christ and be united to Him? The world around us tries to keep us so busy that we don’t have time for the Lord. Are we letting ourselves be united to Christ?

The second level is that of the universal union with Christ. There is a temptation often in the world today to say that if a person is Baptist that’s okay, if they’re non-denominational, that okay, if they Methodist, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist or anything else under the sun, it’s okay – all roads lead to Heaven, right? That view is called religious indifferentism and it is condemned by the Church. Christ didn’t come to us and offer His life on the Cross in order for us to keep following whatever path we feel like. He called us to Himself and to the Church He set up to continue the salvation of souls, and that Church is the Catholic Church. There is a fine balance here between being too soft and too hard on people, but we should be actively encouraging people to become Catholic. After all, if we are who we claim to be, if we are the One True Church founded by Jesus Christ, the Church with the Eucharist, Confession and the other sacraments, the Church which wrote and discerned the holy book we know as the Bible, and are the pillar and defender of the Truth, as the Scriptures say, then why wouldn’t we want others to join us? And while we are at it, let us invite our fallen away Catholics to come home. I don’t need my glasses to see that we have a number of empty seats in Mass today. We have around 2800 families between our three parishes here and if you think that each is at least 2-3 people, then we should be looking at 5-10 thousand people at Mass every weekend and we are certainly far from that mark. Think about how difficult it would be for us if half of our body completely quit working and how much stress and difficulty that would add to the side that is functioning normally. That’s what is happening in the Church here and throughout the whole world. Many in the Body of Christ have simply fallen away and we who remain struggle to press forward still. The crazy thing is that we do more good than any other organization in the whole world. How much more good work could we accomplish if the whole body worked together?

The third level is that of local union. In the Corinthian community there were divisions among the people because they belonged to Paul or Cephas or Apollos, or the perpetual trump card – Jesus Himself. This kind of thing can easily happen in the local church as well with parishes not being open to one another and even being hostile. While we should have a certain pride in being from a particular parish and have a sense of family in that community, it should never be such that we approach things in a manner that implies a sense of superiority because we belong to a particular parish. When we begin to set ourselves against other Catholic Churches in the area. And the same goes for the individual community. When we see a brother or sister in Christ and speak a word of judgment, gossip, negativity, or rejection against them, then we damage the Body of Christ.

There is one person alone who rejoices in such divisions and that is Satan. Christ came to bring life and unity and the devil seeks to bring about death to each of us by separating us from one another. This is his only hope because he knows that as a whole body we are stronger than anything he can throw our way, but if he is able to divide us and separate us from each other and from Christ then we easily fall into his traps. May God grant us the grace today to be instruments of His peace and unity, that drawing closer to Christ ourselves we might be able to work for and enjoy the gift of unity in our Church now and for ever.

Bringing Salvation

The Healing of Naaman

Readings for Sunday, October 13/ 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
2 Kings 5:14-17
Psalm 98:1-4
2 Timothy 2:8-13
Luke 17:11-19

As we find ourselves in the thick of college football season, I am continually struck by the intense animosity and sometimes outright hatred that fans can have for other teams, especially major rivals from their conference. The constant back and forth that can go on between them is almost reminiscent of the fued that we find in the Scriptures between the Jewish people and the Samaritans, non-Jewish people in the area of Israel. These two people had a longstanding and deep-seated hatred of one another and did their best not to have to interact with each other in any real sense since each saw the other as inferior to themselves. That powerful wedge between these two people is the background that we have to be attentive to as we approach the readings today.

In the Second Book of Kings we hear the story of Naaman, a Samaritan, being cleansed from his leprosy through the advice of Elisha the Jewish prophet. The fact that these two were talking with one another is something that would have shocked and even angered many people of their day. But they put aside all the expectations, social stigma, and their own biases in order to come to experience something more profound. Naaman humbles himself to approach the Elisha, which shows the extent to which he desired to be freed from the leprosy. In turn we see Elisha humble himself and receive the leprous Samaritan, which would have been doubly cast aside from the Jewish people. And when the two of them set aside those things that often separate them, we see that miracles happen. First, Naaman is cleansed. But note also that this cleansing is a spiritual one too, as he walks away recognizing that it was the God of Israel who was responsible for it. He has a conversion experience, which is why he makes the odd request to have two mule-loads of dirt. Often people thought that gods were territorial – a god was powerful over a certain place – so to take two loads of dirt was to bring a piece of Israel with him to his homeland, that the Lord whom he had encountered might be with him and continue to be worshipped by him even in his own land. All because they were willing to humble themselves and take a chance.

That story also foreshadows the story we hear of Jesus from Luke’s Gospel, this time with ten lepers being cleansed by the Lord. The leper who is nameless, a significant point which Luke places for us to be able to insert ourselves into the story, returns to Jesus alone rather than accompanied by the other nine after their healing. And from the words of Jesus it seems that this leper might have been the only one of the group that was not Jewish – he was a Samaritan. And yet he returns to the Lord and professes faith because he recognizes the miracle done and the One who had accomplished it, much like Naaman in the first reading. For this return the Lord speaks those blessed words to him, “Stand up and go. Your faith has saved you.” It wasn’t just faith that they would be healed that saved him – all ten had that faith, else they wouldn’t have gone to the priests as commanded – but rather the faith that led him to recognize the giver of the gift and return. Here too we encounter a person not of the Jewish faith encountering the God of Israel and experiencing a conversion of heart.

The actual chains from St. Paul's imprisonment in Rome

In his Second Letter to Timothy we heard St. Paul encourage him “Remember Jesus Christ…” This word from St. Paul is spoken to his brother to remind him of why we do what we do as Christians. It is not for our glory or pleasure, but the glory of God – Remember Jesus Christ. When things get difficult it is for us to be mindful of Christ Jesus, what He has done for us, and what we are called to do for Him. As Christians, and especially each of you as laity in the Church, the mission is to continue the work begun by the Lord. St. Paul writes, “I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus.” He literally endured his imprisonment and sufferings in that time knowing that something good would come from it, and that something was that others would come to know salvation in Christ.

So the question remains for us: who are ‘the chosen ones’ of our own day? Like Naaman and the unnamed leper in the Gospel, there are many who are simply waiting to come into contact with the True God. That fact is clear by the empty seats in the church each weekend. Our community is large enough that we should be a full church each Mass, and yet we are not. There are souls in our community – friends, family, school mates, co-workers, neighbors - who are in need of an invitation to draw near to God, to encounter Him for themselves, and to find healing in whatever may ail them. What keeps us from reaching out to them? Naaman, Elisha, and others showed us that when we set aside everything in hopes for a miracle, sometimes they happen. So who are the chosen ones the Lord desires us to reach out to and help bring to salvation? And are we willing to bear all things that they might find it?

Would the Real Roman Catholics Please Stand Up?

Readings for Sunday, September 29/ 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time:Amos 6:1, 4-7
Psalm 146:7-10
1 Timothy 6:11-16
Luke 16:19-31

How actively are we living our faith?

A couple of weeks ago I went on a little road trip with some friends to Disneyworld. Anyone who has done a road trip before knows how much planning it can take: Where are we going? When are we going? Who is going? How will we get there? How much will it cost? Where will we stay? What will we do? So much to plan beforehand and then when it’s time to go another list of things: Do we have all of our stuff packed? Do we have the directions? Where can we stop to eat? To fill up the tank? To use the restroom? Are we headed the right way on the road? Does the road have tolls? And on and on! There’s a ton of activity going on! It’s not like the airport where we just hop on the moving sidewalk and stand there while it takes you further down the way. It’s active, requiring planning ahead and attentiveness along the way. And if that much planning and action was required just to get to ‘the Most Magical Place on Earth’, how much more planning, attentiveness, and action is required to get to the most magical place of all – Heaven?!

In the Gospel today we hear about an anonymous rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. The rich man had all of his needs filled and much more. And at his door lay a man who would have loved to eat the scraps that fell from the floor of his table. The bad part is that the rich man knew Lazarus and his needs. The Gospel account recalls that fact – that he calls to Abraham and says not ‘send that guy that was in front of my house’ but rather ‘send Lazarus.” He knew him by name and so often walked past him. It wasn’t because of any sins that he committed that he went to hell, but rather it was his failures to do good.

A lot of times we Christians can become complacent and try to reason ourselves into thinking that we’re okay, that we’re good people.  We sit an think ‘well, I haven’t killed anybody, so I’m not that bad of a person’ or ‘I haven’t stolen anything big so it’s not that bad’ and so on. We make ourselves good simply because we don’t do things that we’re not supposed to do anyway. That’s not being good, that’s just being smart! Being good, being holy, is avoiding bad things but also doing good things. After all, when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he responded ‘Love God and love your neighbor.’ I don’t know about you, but loving others isn’t something that just happens by itself. It’s an active thing, and sometimes a very difficult thing because it involves putting the other in front of me. We were created to be active people, people of faith alive in the Holy Spirit.

Whether we know it yet or not, the Mass actually tells us just that. Most of us know the Catholic aerobics routine: come in, genuflect, kneel, sit, stand, sit, stand, sit, stand, sit, stand, kneel, stand, kneel, stand, make the loop for Communion, kneel, sit, stand, then process out. The Church doesn’t do all of that just to make sure we keep our legs nice and toned or to make sure we don’t fall asleep in Mass. It’s because our bodies speak something to our soul – what we do with our body, we should be experiencing and praying with in the silence of our hearts. When we stand up it means we are attentive, that we are read to move, to act on whatever it is we receive. So let’s look through the Mass.

We stand first for the entrance process. While it is usually just the servers and ministers who process in, it is meant to be representative of the whole community gathered there coming to the altar of God to offer praise and worship. The community stand because in our hearts we’re recognizing the movement to God that is taking place. Action. We stand again for the Gospel reading as a sign of readiness to take the Gospel into the world. As we mark our forehead, mouth, and heart we are asking the Lord to cleanse our mind, lips, and heart that receiving the Word in fertile soil we can bring it out to bear fruit in the community. Action. Next we stand for the Creed, the summary of our faith. We stand because in professing our faith we also implicitly say that it must be visible, that it must be lived. Jesus’ death changes the way I live my life. His resurrection changes the way I live my life. The Church changes the way I live my life. It is something public to proclaim, not private to be hidden. Action. We stand again at the offertory at the invitation “Pray brethren, that my sacrifice and yours…” because we recognize that in that moment we are offering God the things of our lives upon the altar. All of us know someone (and probably a lot of someones!) in need of prayer – someone who is sick, someone struggling to make ends meet, someone who lost a loved one. It is our place to take them and to bring them before the Lord and give them to Him. And just like the host and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus and give life to us, we can lift up others in prayer and the Spirit can infuse us and them with His presence and to the same. Action. We stand again for the Our Father because the petitions we make also mean we have some skin in the game. One of my seminary professors spoke of how we could pray ‘in me’ through much of the petitions: “thy kingdom come in me, thy will be done in me”. Action. We stand again and process up to receive Communion, walking toward the Lord, preparing our bodies to receive Him and opening our hearts to receive His grace. Action. And then we stand for the conclusion and sending forth, which is when we take the Word we’ve heard, the good news from the homily and prayers, and the grace of the Eucharist and bring it to the world who didn’t have that opportunity.

We are called to be active in a very real sense. There are a thousand and one excuses not to do something for someone at any given moment: we might be afraid, maybe we got burned last time and can’t trust it wont happen again, maybe we’re greedy or self-centered, maybe we think that something else is more important, and many others. But there is one reason why we can and should be active in seeking out and serving the poor and that reason is Jesus Christ. He came to us to bring us life and win for us eternal joy in Heaven with Him. It is for us to choose it. It doesn’t just happen.

So we pray today to receive the grace to recognize the Lazaruses in our lives, the understanding to know how we can best serve them, and the courage to serve them and in serving them to serve Christ Himself.

Eyes On Heaven

'St. Philomena' by Mic Carlson

Readings for Sunday, August 11/ 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time:Wisdom 18:6-9
Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-22
Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Luke 12:32-48

Today, August 11, is the feast of St. Philomena, a virgin martyr from the third century. Second only to our Blessed Mother, she is my ‘go to gal’ for intercession with Our Lord Jesus, so it was with great joy that when I arrived in our community I was greeted by two images of St. Philomena at St. Michael’s in Convent and the story of the chapel of St. Philomena that once stood in Grand Point. Indeed she loves our community very much, so let us pray for her intercession especially in this sacred time.

Something that I have come to do in my personal prayers before images of Our Lord, Our Lady, and the angels and saints, is to situate myself before them in such a way that they are looking at me. To be able to look them in the eye and feel as if they are looking back at me helps me to remember that the image I’m praying before is representative of a person truly alive in Heaven. They’re real, they’re praying for us, and they’re hoping that we’ll one day enter into their joy. So it always does my heart good to be able to look upon them face to face. But one thing I’ve noticed with most of the images of St. Philomena is that she won’t look at me. I have a statue and framed image of her but as often as I’ve prayed before them I find she will not look at me, but instead looks through me. Those images in a very powerful way show the reality that she was not caught up in earthly things but set her eyes on heavenly things, on the world to come, on eternity.

This is what Our Lord invites us to do today, to store up treasure for ourselves in heaven, looking past all the temptations to store it up instead here on earth. St. Philomena was a young girl beautiful to behold. There was something in her that shined upon all whom she met – her name even means ‘daughter of light’. A Greek princess of royal blood on both parents’ sides, she had much in her favor for a life of riches. When she went with her parents to Rome she was noticed by the Emperor, who desired to take her as his wife. She declined, stating that she had consecrated her virginity to Christ and she was His alone – this all at thirteen years of age! In anger, the Emperor had her imprisoned, hoping to break her spirit. It did not work. She was scourged just like our Lord, but was miraculously healed the next day. Arrows were shot at her but to no avail. Even flaming arrows were shot, but they turned back and killed the archers themselves. An anchor was tied around her neck and she was to be tossed into the Tiber River in Rome, but as they tossed her in she anchor was mysteriously came away and she was found on the shore perfectly dry, said to have been brought there by angels. Finally she was struck with a sword and received the martyr’s palm. She could have had the whole world at her disposal and lived a life of luxury most of us can hardly even conceive of living. And yet her eyes were not here, but looking toward heaven. Her treasure and her heart were firmly placed within the heavenly gates.

This past week I went on a short retreat for a few days and enjoyed the gift that time, being able to sit in the silence and experience God in a powerful way in my prayers both alone and in the community where I was staying. I was on that spiritual high that often accompanies a retreat. And when I came home, I found as I always do that I hadn’t really changed that much. I still had to battle with the same sins, still had the same temptations to avoid this or that task, to exercise my vices rather than virtues. In short, I realized that my heart is not completely in heaven yet. I still try often to store up treasure here on earth for myself. And I don’t think I’m alone in that. I think most of us are in the same boat on that point – we all have at least one sin that we fight against, that one possession we cling to, that one thing, whatever it may be, that keeps us from really letting our hearts go up to heaven. We keep those little treasures here for ourselves just in case – just in case Christ doesn’t fulfill us, just in case we’re not happy like we want, just in case.

How do we get away from this? How can we work to set our eyes and our hearts on heaven? It’s quite simple – not easy, but simple. We need only look at four main areas in our lives. Back in Lent we had books free for the taking, one of which was Matthew Kelly’s book The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic (available HERE for only the cost of shipping). In that book he outlines those four ways which I remember by a nice little acronym – PEGS. Prayer, Evangelization, Generosity, Study. PEGS.

Prayer. Are we praying? I mean REALLY praying? Not just mindlessly saying words from a pray card or book, but speaking those or other words from our very heart. We have to pray regularly, telling God what is going on in our mind and heart, what is happening in our life, where we need His help, where we’ve seen His work, and how we experience and return His love. If we don’t know Christ personally and dialogue with Him we are far from heavenly joy. And at Mass, are we really praying there? I’ll be the first to admit that I struggle to pray every time I’m at Mass. It’s easy to just say the words without really meaning it, but we’re called to enter deeply into this celebration. Prayer.

Evangelization. We have to share the Good News! When I get on Facebook I see all the updates – people in new relationships, getting married, having babies, experiencing this or that activity – good things that they want to share. None of us ever experiences something that is incredible and fails to tell a soul about it. No, what do we do? We share it with everyone around us because we want them to know about it to. And if there is anything we should be excited about it is the salvation we have in Christ Jesus. When we truly encounter Christ in prayer – and only after that – we will be changed and want to tell others, to seek them out and say ‘let me tell you what Christ did in my life today, let me tell you what incredible things He has done.’ Evangelization.

Generosity. As I look out I see many faces who help in various ways and ministries in our community. It is a joy to see that. We must be generous with our gifts. Yes, we need to tithe, but we need even more to be people of service. People who are filled with the Gospel call to charity and seek to build up the Church and the Kingdom of God with our gifts, not keeping them for ourselves but sharing them generously. Generosity.

Study. We must grow in our knowledge of the faith. We have to read and know the Scriptures. We have to know our theology, our catechism lessons, the stories of our saints. It’s easy to study, we do it in so many other things. We know all the celebrity gossip, we know about our favorite TV shows, video games, internet sites, car parts, clothing stores, and the list goes on. We study the things of the world, but how willing are we to study the things of God? To spend a few minutes with the Bible everyday? To pick up a good book or cd on something of the faith and immerse ourselves in it? To set our hearts in heaven , this is an absolute must. St. Jerome once said that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ Himself. And the same coule be said of His teachings given through the Church. If we don’t know our faith, we don’t know our God. Study.

PEGS. Prayer. Evangelization. Generosity. Study. If we want to go to Heaven, the path is a tough one but the method is simple. If we start with these four areas and try to live them each day and grow in them throughout our lives, we can be sure that there will be much heavenly treasure built up for us. And if we refuse to live these four things and grow in them throughout our lives, we can be sure of the opposite. The choice is ours and ours alone. Let us choose wisely and follow the path that St. Philomena has walked before us. Let us choose Christ.